Kevin W. McCarthy

The Professor of On-Purpose

Blog

Are You Getting Smarter?

By

As you learn more and get smarter, are you gaining in arrogance or humility? You’re headed in one direction or the other. 

Here’s an On-Purpose Proverb to ponder:

Humility is knowing self relative to God.

Knowledge is a good thing, but going all the way back to the original sin in the Garden of Eden, let’s not mistake our smarts with being a self-referenced deity.

As you learn and experience more of life do you ever find yourself asking, Has the world gone crazy or have I? No one of us knows everything. Be gracious toward yourself and others that the smarter you’re becoming the more you are realizing all that you don’t know.

Ignorance isn’t the absence of knowledge. Ignorance is knowing better but doing nothing with it.

Learning is the basis of personal and professional growth throughout life. There’s a downside to learning, however, called frustration. This sets in when we’re in a situation and can prophetically see what’s unfolding next, yet the crowd remains blind.

The elderly are often knocked with being grumpy. Maybe they have good reason. Imagine watching person after person repeating the same stupid mistake you made 50 or 60 years ago. Wouldn’t you want to help them too? Yet when you voice your insight you’re discounted as being too old and out of touch to have a worthwhile perspective. As events happen and a pattern repeats, the quieted elderly person watches and shakes their head knowing that life lessons are very hard to borrow.

We all have a measure of personal pride bordering on arrogance.

Humility, when partnered with curiosity, makes for an inquisitive mind and heart. Asking, rather than telling, opens up someone’s world and lessons to us. It expands our bubble of knowledge.

The truth is somewhere in between. Seniors in years can learn much from seniors in high school and vice versa. Rather than writing the kids off as moral vagrants, the older generation can benefit from the kids’ adaptability, pace, and technological prowess. Teens can benefit from the perspectives of lives lived long, mistakes made, lessons learned, and the humility found in frailty and from wearing Depends.

It can all resolve itself with one word: respect. Despite the riches of the internet, no one has a monopoly on information and knowledge. These advantages are relatively flattened in minutes or seconds thanks to an internet connection and a Google search. WiFi, however, will never replace wisdom.

This On-Purpose Minute provides answers and insights into why knowledge is power and why it can also be confusing and confounding.

Use your power respectfully. True humility is quiet confidence in action.

So the next time you experience a “grumpy” elder, invest a minute or two to learn what they see and understand it from their point of view. Ask questions. Borrow their wisdom. Learn their lessons. You might even bring a smile to their “grumpy” face. More importantly, you might walk away all the wiser.

Will You Have A Happy, Healthy, & Prosperous New Year?

By

(This video was originally recorded in 2011. While the year mentioned is not current, the message shared is timeless.)

To kick off the New Year, I’ve gathered a handful of On-Purpose Minutes and Business Minutes relevant to the popular New Year’s toast for a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year. Rather than it being a mere sentiment, why not make it a reality or at least invest your self in making your good life even better?

Put your good intentions into action!

For each aspect of this New Year gesture, dig deeper by clicking on the provided links to relevant Minutes.

Happy On-Purpose New Year!
Kevin

A Happy New Year

Happy is rightfully a great word to be associated with New Year’s Day. Much like time itself, happiness is fleeting, yet so desired. Who doesn’t want to be happy? The term “Happy New Year” embraces the chronological odometer as it turns and makes a fresh start for 2018. Relish the reminder.

Comparing Christmas Day to New Year’s Day reveals an interesting shift of words and implications. We will say Merry Christmas, but the word most reverently associated with this Christian holy day is joy, as in the song, Joy to the World.

Joy can be one’s reality regardless of whether circumstances are happy or unhappy. Trading in happiness is a far less stable currency of emotion. Joy is the gold standard.

Are You Happily Distracted?

How Do You Get The Job Of Your Life?

How Do I Find Peace In My Life?

A Healthy New Year

Several years ago, this over-50 former athlete turned business advisor, author, and speaker was resigned to wearing “my fat suit.” This is going to sound awful, but I was so accepting of my extra pounds that I used to say, “Unless I have a cancer, I probably won’t lose this weight.” Ugh!

Fortunately, that changed in March 2008, when I was booked by Dr. Wayne Andersen (sight unseen) to be the keynote speaker at the Take Shape For Life National Convention. I did the program, lost the weight, and haven’t really looked back at my old weight since. Admittedly, the holidays are the hardest part for me because I get so out of my normal routine; it is a festive time, and I’m addicted to sweets.

Are You Starting A Diet Monday?

Do You Want To Grow Into Maturity?

A Prosperous New Year

Prosperity is so overused, abused, and misunderstood. Let’s set the record straight.

Are You Prepared to Prosper?

Blessed Are The Profitmakers For They Shall Enrich The Earth

 

Why Is My Business Struggling?

By

Fortune 1000 company CEOs and small start-up business owners who have yet to make $1,000 often share the same problem—a business struggling to succeed. Economic conditions can definitely have an effect.

Many of the business challenges I see, however, are self-inflicted!

Business problems due to lack of sales revenue are most often addressed at the surface level—”We need a new website, lower prices, more salespeople, and so forth.” Sales and marketing are obvious places to look by the entrepreneur or even seasoned CEO.

Business solutions like these are where hordes of consultants and advisors earn their fees. Most often they are well earned and justified.

But wait—there’s more!

My experience as a business advisor for CEOs of multi-billion dollar companies and one person start-ups tells me that these tactical plans and approaches to problem businesses are often futile. It leaves the business struggling and focused on the wrong activities, even if well intended.

The culprit of many a business challenge lies below the surface.

If the basic business design, model, and plan have flaws then the entire business is off the mark. The larger the business, the more it lives within the corporate culture—for better or worse. Even a small defect at the core of the business can be expensive.

What To Do

  1. Watch this video on The On-Purpose Business Plan. Invest 9 minutes right now. This will help you find undiscovered wealth within your business. As you’re watching ask yourself if your business has this kind of thinking and structure in place and developed. Better yet, ask yourself the value of it if you did have it in place. When you build your business on your purpose, then you’re capable of offering a full-bodied expression of your business instead of the typically tactical and anemic offerings of today.

If something is missing in your business … it is probably here!

    2. Do This: STOP! = Start Thinking On-Purpose! 

How to do that: Try this simple exercise. Write down your “truths” about your business. This could include your assumptions about your customers, the market conditions, what it takes to sell, the benefits and features of your product or service, costs, the quality of your team or delivery … you get the idea. Jot down what you hold as a reality or truth in your business. These are your assumptions and concepts.

Next, take your list to two or three people outside your industry and ask them to review the list and to tell you their take on your observations plus their thoughts and perceptions. Avoid defensiveness. Wear your R&D and market research hat and listen—don’t tell—and just ask.

Finally, interview a few customers or targeted prospects to learn if your truths are reality or simply impressions that constrain your business development and growth. Ponder it and then adjust accordingly!

How Do You Manage Disappointment?

By

Disappointment is inevitable but it need not be debilitating.

How you manage it, however, is a choice with profound implications to your well-being, relationships, and opportunities. The easy route is to react negatively and stay there, but what good is that? You have a better choice.

I got to thinking about the word: disappointment.

It led me to this chain of words: disappointment > disappoint > point > appoint > appointment. The common word is “point” as in a mark or dot or direction. When we’re disappointed, the mark has been missed. It does, however, provide an opportunity for redirection.

What if disappointment is really intended to direct us to a greater appointment?

So when we stay in a negative place, aren’t we the ones who increase the price of the initial disappointment and risk missing where we’ve been appointed to shine?

(To see another use of “the point” you can watch this 9-minute video about the punctuation of your life. Is your life a question mark, period, or exclamation point? It is an excerpt from a keynote speaking engagement I did a few years ago.)

The holiday season sets high expectations, which can lead to great disappointment.

How do you turn that around?

As one year rolls into the next, take some time to refocus on-purpose.

I would love to hear your words of advice for getting unstuck when you find yourself disappointed with something important.

What works for you in managing disappointment? Share your thoughts in the comment box below. What you have to say may be the very words that help transform another person’s perspective. Now don’t disappoint me!  : )

Humility Matters: Who Is Keeping You Real?

By

So you think you have this on-purpose thing mastered in your work life?

Yep, as you’re getting more and more on-purpose you’re being sought and placed into positions of leadership. Your star is rising.

Now for the bad news — there’s a downside to being on-purpose.

Guard against the arrogance of being on-purpose or, ironically, you’ll end up being off-purpose.

Success can breed a winner’s arrogance versus a servant leader’s confidence and humility.

Who is keeping you grounded and real? It better be someone!

Are you a business leader looking for an executive coach to give you a true perspective on your personal self-importance reading? Below are some great referrals for you and me. Tell ’em I sent you.

1. Mary Tomlinson in Raleigh, NC. Email Mary. Mary has a stellar corporate executive background at Walt Disney World plus 16 years of being an independent coach, consultant, and speaker.

2. John Smith (yes, his real name), my mentor. Email John. John has a decades-long career in the ministry of serving CEOs.

3. Dave Vogelpohl is a senior-level business advisor with both big business experience and small business consulting insights. In recent years, Dave has been doing a lot of church consulting—when I’m not bugging him to help me sort out options.

4. Kevin W. McCarthy. Yes, I’m available for business advisory services to help individuals and organizations to be on-purpose.

Do You Know Your Gift?

By

Your contribution to the life of another is directly tied to “the gift” you possess.

How well you examine and understand your gift directly influences the measure of your difference-making.

Within you is something inherently special. It is a gift that must be unwrapped, examined, and understood to be fully appreciated and enjoyed.

This gift is an expression of your purpose.

Are you ready to help others discover their gift by encouraging them to be on-purpose?

Here are some ideas:

Visit our online bookstore for more ideas.

 

Business Building: A “ME” or a “WE” Business?

By

Business building is exciting.

Don’t let the excitement get the better of you. There’s a fork in the road in your business design that is too easily missed or goes unrecognized. The strategic and performance implications are profound.

If you are planning to start up a small business or are already running one, then you have a deep leadership decision about the orientation and attitude of your business as a “ME” business or a “WE” business. This orientation will play a major role in defining your corporate culture as well as the long-term sustainability of your organization—even its viability to be sold.

Here are two basic ways to go about business building:

M.E. = My Ego

or

W.E. = Winning for Everyone

Many professionals’ offices and mom and pop businesses are “ME” businesses simply by default or lack of knowing any better. “ME” businesses may provide adequate customer service, but they are more likely a source of periodic customer service nightmare stories.

Being a business advisor for over three decades, I’ve observed that most ME businesses do not have happy endings for the business owners who are unaware of the “ME or WE” business model. Either the business success is so dependent on the person that there isn’t a viable exit strategy, or the reputation of the business is so poor there’s no goodwill worth buying.

  • The employees are workers doing the owner’s bidding, so in the boss’s absence they’re lost or unable to act independently.
  • Sale of the business is next to impossible, or it will be bought for pennies on the dollar.
  • Family members capable who would be a logical part of the succession planning have long since departed the scene to carve their own way. Or worse, they’re still around as dependents. This latter situation can get ugly fast.

Generally, these ME enterprises close when the dominant or alpha personality departs by either retirement or death. If by chance, the business is sold, the valuations are almost always discounted or only asset-valuations based because the business is so revenue and operationally dependent upon the owner.

However, if you’re unwilling, unable, or just don’t care about the long-term sustainability or saleability of the business, and if you’ve made an informed decision about having a “ME” business, then press into it all the way.

As long as you’re building a ME business by design and you understand the downside and can accept it, then there’s nothing inherently wrong with just shutting the doors when you’re done.

“WE” businesses are looking for win-win outcomes for everyone involved.

Candidly, the “Everyone Profits” mindset is a challenge to design, create, and execute, but done well is far easier to sustain and manage. (Here’s a huge tip: use The On-Purpose Business Plan as a guide.) When the people thrive, the business is more likely to follow suit.

An owner who cares about people infuses that attitude to the employees, who pass it along to the customers, who in turn send their referrals.

The spirit of customer service begins with a decision about whom the business serves. If you’ve never thought about your business orientation as “ME” or “WE,” then invest a few minutes to take a hard look in the mirror. I promise you that you can improve your lifestyle, position, and business performance if you will make a TOPBPerson coverdecision regarding your business orientation and then take it deeply one way or the other.

Don’t stay in the mushy middle. Pick a direction and run to it.

The On-Purpose® Approach is a service concept with “WE” checks and balances. Yes, it is more difficult to design and develop, but it brings a sustainable and durable dimension to the business. If you need help forming or transforming your “WE” business, let us know. We have business advisors who can guide you regardless of the size of your business.

What If You Knew You Would Live to Be A Healthy 100 Year Old?

By

Too many middle-aged people have succumbed to the popular notion that age defines attitude.

When your decades number close to five or more, who says you can’t start a new business, begin to learn new things, or be adventurous?

Don’t be down just because you’re up in age. Longevity lives in your spirit, not your chronology.

Resist the fractured logic that 65, the retirement age, is the end of your useful life. Retirement from a job doesn’t mean your life is over. It is simply a time for a new beginning. Let purpose—not your age—define your life, and you’re alive with the truth.

Who is the oldest person you know or have ever known? What did he or she tell you about the ups and downs of longevity?

Marie McCarthy, my Grandmother McCarthy, lived to age 97. She lived to 97. She didn’t die at 97. Do you see the difference? Sure, other people lived longer than Grandma, but few have had such a quick soft laugh and sense of humor that stayed even after her death.

A funny discovery came out at Grandma’s funeral. She lied about her age. It all began when she met my grandfather. She was born on November 2, 1900. He was born on February 20, 1901. Being older than him by three months didn’t sit well with her. She wanted him to think he was older. She was the eldest of eleven Kuhn children. Her whole family was in on the scam. Her youngest brothers and sisters (my father’s aunts and uncles) were actually younger than my father. They’re the ones who told my father at her funeral that her date of birth had the wrong year—she was born in 1900, not 1901.

Family secrets are sometimes funny things. At her 95th (actually her 96th!) birthday celebration, she was quite put off by all the attention. Now we know why. There, however, I remember her telling me, “If I had known I was going to live this long, I would have done things differently.” She never did tell me what things she would have done differently, but I sense she had some regrets and some insights.

Along these lines, here is a quote on aging sure to get your crow’s feet showing!

“If you live to the age of a hundred you have it made … because very few people die past the age of a hundred.” George Burns

One the great benefits of grey hair is that the older I get the more I see the hand of God at work in and around me. Of course, I’m asking for help regularly and am, therefore, expectant.

How On-Purpose Can You Be With Ill Health?

Dr. Wayne Andersen, Medical Director of Take Shape For Life, helped me learn new Habits of Health to not just prevent disease, but to move away from disease and toward health. Being at a healthy weight is essential to longevity.

My mother, who is 87, lives in an independent living situation. As I walk the halls on visits and greet people, I don’t see many overweight or obese residents. The thin ones are the lively ones.

If you need help (at any age) getting to a healthier place in your life, get a health coach and learn to develop a thin healthy mind and lifestyle. If you have a health coach, press him or her for more. If you need a health coach, email Judith, my wife. She’s a Certified Health Coach and works with clients across the U.S.

You, too, can live a longer and healthier life. It begins with a decision to be healthy.

I’ve found messages and the means to support my decision to live to be 100 years of age and healthy. Join me?